Many vehicles such as sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and light trucks are being equipped with vehicle dynamic control and safety features such as roll stability control (RSC), yaw stability control, and vehicle rollover protection systems. Many advanced sensing and occupant protection systems such as pre-crash sensing systems, motorized seatbelt pretensioners, and dynamic suspension height adjustment systems are also being deployed or developed. Currently, these systems operate as independent features or functions without realizing the synergistic benefits and both the system simplification and cost-saving opportunities that can be made available from an integrated systems approach.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a system that integrates various vehicle systems so that cost savings can be achieved and, at the same time, the overall vehicle system performance can be improved, or at least not compromised, by means of a more thorough determination of control conditions and crash conditions.
One specific example mentioned above is a vehicle that is equipped with various active safety systems including roll stability control, yaw stability control, collision mitigation systems, and various passive safety deployment and control devices including seatbelt pretensioners and various air bags. The seatbelt pretensioners may be electronically controlled (for example, motorized). One example of a pretensioner is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,540.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,540 describes a vehicle collision damage reduction system. The system works by detecting the relative speed between the host vehicle and an object, and calculating a danger level based on the relative speed and relative distance. Based on the danger level, a pretensioner can be activated at a certain level. No rollover stability control and the other vehicle dynamics based activation are conducted.
U.S. Publication 2003/0047927 describes a rollover detection means and also restraint means, such as belt tighteners, that are triggered upon the detection of a rollover. U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,981 also proposes a method for controlling a vehicle occupant protecting device upon detection of a rollover.
PCT Publication WO/2003/051686 A1 describes a seatbelt device control method including an obstacle detection, a collision detection, and a pretensioner control that is activated when a collision is predicted. No rollover, stability control and the other vehicle dynamics based activation are conducted.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,256,565 describes a safety system, which operates on the basis of an obstacle detection device and vehicle state detection device for the control of an inflatable seatbelt system. No rollover, stability control and the other vehicle dynamics based activation are conducted.
PCT Publication WO/2003/078181 A1 describes a method that controls a reversible system associated with a seat (especially a belt tensioner) based on the detection of a rapid pressure drop in a tire. Such a system secures a passenger to the seat in the potentially dangerous situation of a tire blow-out. No rollover, stability control and the other vehicle dynamics based activation are conducted.
U.S. Publication 2002/0087243 addresses a control system in a rollover situation.
The above and other known systems consider controlling a motorized seatbelt pretensioner or another safety device to activate upon the detection of a dangerous situation like a collision, a rollover, and emergency braking. The above known systems do not adequately take advantage of available vehicle information, vehicle environmental information, and vehicle systems to provide progressive activation for seamless performance. Also, none of these patents teaches extending the operation range of the pretensioners to help the dynamic comfort of an occupant during a non-safety situation like handling a maneuver.
Because a pretensioner is generally the only means that directly influences an occupant's posture, it may be desirable to extend the pretensioner's operation range beyond dangerous situations like collision and rollover. For example, it may be desirable to use the motorized pretensioner to help reduce uncomfortable occupant body motion during non-safety-related dynamic maneuvers.
It is also desirable to share sensor elements for both passive safety and active safety systems to eliminate unnecessary cost.